US should strengthen strategic ties to Greenland, senators hear

Senate Commerce Committee offers bilateral support for better relationship but members clash over Trump proposals to buy or seize island

Reading Time:3 minutes

An iceberg floats near Nuuk, the administrative centre of Greenland. On Wednesday the US Senate Commerce Committee heard testimony on why the US should strengthen its relationship with the strategic territory. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:17am, 13 Feb 2025Updated: 7:02am, 13 Feb 2025

US Senate Republicans and Democrats agreed on Wednesday that the US needs a closer relationship with Greenland to keep the autonomous Danish territory from falling under the influence of China and Russia.

They clashed, however, over President Donald Trump’s stated intention to purchase the island and his refusal to rule out military force to gain control.

Witnesses appearing before the Senate Commerce Committee warned that the US was badly outnumbered by Beijing and Moscow in terms of icebreakers and other vessels that frequently skirt Greenland’s coast.

Transits by the two countries’ ships and submarines through Greenland’s territorial waters, they contended, often occur without proper notification in accordance with Nato protocols.

They also said the critical mineral bounty underneath the island’s thick cover of ice could help break China’s stranglehold on global supplies, while arguing for a modernised monitoring infrastructure to detect intercontinental ballistic missiles launched at the US from China, Russia or the Middle East.

While the witnesses did not dismiss buying the island – assuming that would involve negotiation with a population of around 56,000 which may vote this year on a referendum on independence from Denmark – they offered other options that would give Washington more control. None endorsed a US invasion.